User talk:Topheh
Wandering Wiki Gnome Greetings; I saw this wiki (well, actually the original Lords of Creation wiki) cross linked with the Wikia wiki I manage and usually frequent, the d20 NPCs wiki, and did some nosing around. I'm intrigued by the project and while I likely won't jump into the worldbuilding at this point, I would like to offer my services as a wiki supervisor and programmer. Since you have several categorizations of pages, it may be helpful to have Templates that can unify the display of those sorts of things and make a unified look across the wiki. I've created several (dynamic) Templates for the d20 NPCs wiki to create Stat blocks in a unified manner (like the DMG2-style stat block), and would be glad to do similar things here if you'd like. Additionally, have you looked into the Semantic MediaWiki plugin that Wikia can add on request? It would allow much greater flexibility in finding things within a wiki like this; it's how the d20 NPCs wiki aids in finding NPCs by multiple properties. Also, I'm curious what the longevity of this wiki is/will be; it looks like the forum "game" is only slated for a few months of activity, and will then be dormant. Will this Wikia wiki be re-used for future games, or do you plan to simply keep making more wikis after the current is done? It might be best to have an "archive" ability to snapshot the content of the current "world" when it's complete, and clear out the wiki for another round of worldbuilding. Otherwise Wikia's Gaming area will eventually be littered with several 'dead' LoC wikis, and only one "active" one. --MidnightLightning☇(talk) 21:55, June 14, 2010 (UTC) Hey, sorry I missed you on chat there. Was watching the World Cup. (I assume that was you, right?) To answer your second question first... We *had* been opening up new wikis with each iteration of the game, but as I'm getting more comfortable with wiki, I think that starting with the next one, we'll be doing exactly that... either different namespaces or some form of archiving so we don't have to change the wiki-name every time (We'll probably just go back to that initial LoC wiki... its got the best name). As to your first question. I, personally, would love some help! Its been interesting trying to balance interesting things on the wiki (such as templates and fun extensions) with ease-of-use for those of us who have zero experience with these sorts of things (which is a surprisingly large number, given the nature of what we're doing. The link you had up there looks amazing. And I'll take a look at that extension... it also looks quite useful. Topheh 19:51, June 15, 2010 (UTC) :All right! Yes it was me in chat a while ago, but I didn't have long to hang out then; I was thinking of posting in the Wizards forums to see if I could get anyone's attention, but I've been boycotting them since the whole Gleemax debacle (I was a WizO prior to that, and was forced into retirement...). I'd be glad to create some "true" templates (I see someone had created some "Copy and paste these into a new article" templates for New gods, etc., which I hadn't noticed before my first posting). I've got several years experience working with MediaWiki wikis both on Wikia and off, and would be glad to help out. If you would like my help and wouldn't mind promoting me to Admin status on this Wiki, I'd be glad to make some changes to help out. I started a God Info template, though in order to make it look good, I need access to the MediaWiki:Common.css file, which I need admin rights to edit. The folks at Wikia can facilitate wiki merges, so we might be able to ask them to merge all the content from the old wiki into this one (or vice-versa) under a new Namespace, and clean it up as an archive to really be able to use it as a world setting, rather than just a nostalgia point for past players. I recall there was a promotion on Wikia a while ago that was promoting creating "real books" from Wiki(a) content; I can't find the link to it now, but it might be an interesting option to provide a "campaign setting" book/PDF for people to download/purchase of the final setting (once everything's organized and fleshed out, of course). :Which brings up a point; while from what I understand of this project, it's a "create a world" project, is it trying to operate under any specific gaming system? I've seen a few pages about "Beasts" and whatnot have full stat blocks as custom creations, and some are canon creatures from d20 SRDs, but is there an official notice that you're working under the D&D 4e or 3.5 ruleset (since you started on Wizards forums), or are you specifically trying to stay generic? That might be a good policy to actively announce, as it would determine the usefulness of the end "product" of the worldbuilding. If it is specific to a D&D ruleset, there's other D&D wikis on Wikia that could be cross-linked with more in-depth content to add value to this wiki (and the others) without a whole lot of extra effort. Custom NPC stats could be added to d20NPCs, custom races, classes, and templates could be submitted to Dungeons & Dragons (they accept 3.5e and 4e content, though they strive to keep all content strictly well-balanced and playable), and places/organizations/encounter settings could be added to d20 Adventure (an abandoned wiki, but could be revived). :--MidnightLightning☇(talk) 23:30, June 15, 2010 (UTC) ::Well, nominally we're using the DnD 4e system, but by and large it should be extendable to most generic systems as well (as, ultimately, we're just writing a communal story with the thought that DMs might want to use some of the situations we've set up as points to launch adventures off of. ::The idea of making a pdf version of things has occurred to me before, although I've found from past iterations that once the curtain falls, 90% of the players cease to have any interest in doing anything with it anymore, and I certainly don't have enough time to polish everything up into something I'd consider a 'finished product' on my own. At the moment, there's a bit of nostalgia for the first LoC we kept a wiki for (the original one you found)... I'll see if I can get some people to put some elbow grease into finishing up some of the sections. ::You'll be adminned shortly. Thanks for your help! Topheh 17:10, June 16, 2010 (UTC)